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At that particular moment in the summer of 2010, DeLaet had missed the cut in more than half his 18 starts in his rookie year on the PGA Tour. His best chance at winning a tournament had ended with the thud of a final-round 78 at the Reno-Tahoe Open. And yet he spoke as though he considered himself an impending member of the game’s elite.

“I mean, I don’t know if that’s too far-fetched,” DeLaet continued. “But, I mean, for a kid from Saskatchewan to dream about playing on the PGA Tour is pretty far-fetched, too. And I made it here, so hopefully I can keep achieving my goals.”

Watching DeLaet finish third at the Deutsche Bank Championship on the long weekend, it was no stretch to suggest he’s currently among the hottest golfers on the planet. DeLaet’s third-place result at 18 under par, four shots back of winner Henrik Stenson, followed up a tie for second the week before at The Barclays, the opening leg of the PGA Tour’s playoffs.

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DeLaet’s lucrative work of late — he has earned more than $1 million in prize money in the past two tournaments alone — has vaulted him into fifth place in the FedEx Cup standings heading into the penultimate BMW Championship, where the top 70 players will take to Conway Farms Golf Club in suburban Chicago beginning Sept. 12. The strong showing, along with assuring DeLaet a spot in the Tour Championship, also ensured an automatic berth on the international roster at next month’s Presidents Cup at Muirfield Village for the 31-year-old from Weyburn, Sask., making him just the second Canadian after Mike Weir to earn the privilege.

“He’s just getting comfortable being a great player,” Gabriel Hjertstedt, the former PGA Tour winner who is DeLaet’s short-game coach, said in a phone interview. “He is a great player. But he’s got to get comfortable being up there every week.”

DeLaet couldn’t match Stenson’s mastery on Monday at TPC Boston. The Swede, who entered the final round trailing 54-hole leader Sergio Garcia by two shots, fired a final-round 66 to finish the tournament at 22 under par, two shots clear of second-place finisher Steve Stricker. But while Garcia faded badly with a final-round 73 that landed him in a four-way tie for fourth, DeLaet shook off a middling opening eight holes that had him 1 over par for the day to birdie three of the final 10 holes.

Sporting a hockey-esque playoff beard — “because it’s the (FedEx) Cup,” went the joke on Twitter — DeLaet’s big move came in Sunday’s third round, when he followed up a first-hole bogey by making 10 birdies en route to a round of 9-under 62, tying his best score on the world’s best tour. DeLaet called it “one of those days that it doesn’t come along as often as you’d like.”

So was Monday, when DeLaet earned congratulatory tweets from the likes of all-time great Gary Player — “Well done! Go Canada!” — and Brantford’s David Hearn, a fellow PGA Tour pro.

“(DeLaet) is a first-line centre in the playoffs,” wrote Hearn, who finished tied for 35th and moved into 67th in the playoff standings, qualifying for the BMW Championship.

DeLaet, though he has managed seven top-10 finishes this season, is still awaiting his first win on the PGA Tour. But it’s not as though he hasn’t taken home trophies at golf’s lower levels. He won 10 tournaments while on scholarship at Boise State. He won on the Canadian Tour. Hjertstedt said it’s a matter of time before DeLaet, now ranked 35th in the world, can call himself a champion on the sport’s biggest stage. As it is, the FedEx playoffs aren’t exactly a soft spot on the schedule.

“He’s playing at a high level against the greatest in the world right now. If it was a mediocre field he’d probably blow it away,” Hjertstedt said. “When I played on tour (mostly in the 1990s) there were maybe five or six guys that could hit shots other guys couldn’t hit. And now you might have 15 or 20 guys who can hit shots nobody else can hit. And Graham’s one of those guys, like an Ernie Els when he played great, or a Greg Norman when he played great. Really, they have an extra gear they can put it into. They have the talent to pull off shots where other people might be bailing out.”

Far from cowering while playing in the final threesome with Garcia and Stenson on Monday, DeLaet turned around a discouraging pattern. His scoring average of 70.33 was 12th-best on the tour heading into the tournament, but his final-round scoring average, which is about a quarter of a stroke higher, was only 51st-best. Monday’s pair of closing birdies gave him a 69, his second straight sub-70 total on the final day of a tournament after his 65 on Sunday at The Barclays.

He still hasn’t won. He certainly hasn’t won a major or multiples thereof. But it’s hardly far-fetched to believe he’s on the verge of the professional breakthrough he’s long been chasing.

“I really think he’s got the complete package, and he’s had it for a while,” Hjertstedt said. “If he just keeps doing what he’s doing, I think he’ll make Canada proud.”

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